Category Archives: church

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his confession of faith, from 1655, is found on pages 112 to 114 of Jean Léger’s, Histoire Générale des Vaudois (1669). Here is my rough translation, taken from the old French.

We Believe:

I. That there is only one God, who is a spiritual essence, eternal, infinite, all wise, all merciful, and all just; in one word, perfect. And that there are three Persons in that one and simple essence: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

II. That this God manifested himself to man by his works, such as Creation, such as Providence, and by his Word, revealed in the beginning by diverse strong Oracles, and then composed by writing in Books which we call the Holy Scripture.

III. That just as we must receive the Holy Scriptures as Divine and Canonical, for the rule of our life and Faith, [so also we receive] that it is filled with Books from the Old and New Testament. From the Old Testament only those Books which God committed to the Judean Church, and those that have always been recognized as Divine: to receive: the five Books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles or Paralipomenon, 1 of Esdras,[1. “Protestant writers, after the Geneva Bible, call I and II Esdras of the Vulgate respectively Ezra and Nehemiah, and III and IV Esdras of the Vulgate respectively I and II Esdras.” Source: Catholic Encyclopedia.] Nehemiah, Esther, Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, the four major prophets and the twelve minor. And in the New [Testament]: the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of Paul, one to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, one to the Ephesians, one to the Philippians, one to the Colossians, the epistle of Hebrews, one of St. James, two of St. Peter, three of St. John, one of St. Jude, and the Apocalypse [Revelation].

IV. That we recognize the Divinity of the Sacred Books, not only by the testimony of the Church, but primarily by the eternal and indubitable truth of the Doctrine which are therein contained, [by the] excellence, sublimity, and majesty of everything Divine which are therein, and by the operation of the Holy Spirit, who makes us receive with respect the testimony which the Church gives us, who open our eyes to discover the rays of celestial light which burst in Scripture, and who rectifies our taste in order to discern this meat by the Divine savor that it is.

V. That God made all things from nothing, by his entirely free will, and by the infinite power of his Word.

VI. That he leads and governs all by his Providence, ordaining and addressing all that comes about in the world, that without being neither the author nor the cause of evil done by the creatures, or that culpability be able, or ought in any way to be imputed [to him.]

VII. That the Angels having been created holy and pure, some fell in a corruption and irreparable perdition, but that the others persevered by an effect of Divine goodness, which supported and confirmed them.

VIII. That man, who was created pure and holy, in the Image of God, deprived himself by his own fault of this happy state, giving his sentiments to the captivating discourse of the Devil.

IX. That man lost, by his transgression, the justice and holiness that he had received, incurring, with the indignation of God, death and captivity, under the power of him who has the empire of death, that is to say the Devil, to the point that his free will[2. Franc arbitre] became serf and slave of sin, so much that by nature all men, Jews and Gentiles, are the Children of Ire, all dead in faults and sins, and consequently incapable of having any good movement towards salvation, no even [able] to form any good thought without grace; all their imagination and thought are but evil at all times.

X. That all the posterity of Adam is guilty, in him, of his disobedience, infected by his corruption, and fallen in the same calamity, all the way to little Children, starting from the womb of their Mother, from where comes the name of Original Sin.

XI. That God withdraws from this corruption and damnation those persons whom he elected by his grace, in his Son Jesus Christ, leaving the others [in their corruption & damnation] by an irreproachable right of his liberty and justice.

XII. That Jesus Christ, having been ordained by God in his eternal decree to be the only Savior and the only Head of his Body, that is the Church, bought by his own Blood, in the accomplishment of time, and offers and communicates to us all his benefits by the Gospel.

XIII. That there are two natures in Jesus Christ, the Divine and the human, truly in one person, without confusion, without division, without separation, without change; each nature keeping its own distinct natures, and that Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man all together.

XIV. That God so loved the world that he gave his Son to save us by his very perfect obedience, namely by that [obedience] which he showed by suffering the damned death of the Cross, and by the victories that he won over the Devil: sin and death.

XV. That Jesus Christ having accomplished the entire expiation of our sins by his very perfect sacrifice, once offered on the Cross, it [that expiation] cannot, nor should be reiterated under any pretext whatever.

XVI. That the Lord Jesus having fully reconciled us to God by the Blood of the Cross, it is by his merit only, and not by our works, that we are absolved and justified before him.

XVII. That we have union with Jesus Christ, and communion to his benefits by Faith.

XVIII. That this Faith comes from the gracious and effective operation of the Holy Spirit, who enlightens our souls, and brings them [our souls] to press upon the grace of God, in order to apply the merit of Jesus Christ.

XIX. That Jesus Christ is our true and only Mediator: not only of Redemption, but also of Intercession, and that by his merits and mediation we have access to the Father, in order that we might invoke with the holy confidence of being answered, without needing to have recourse to any other intercessor than him [Christ.]

XX. That since God promised regeneration in Jesus Christ, those who are united to him by a lively Faith, ought to give themselves, and give themselves indeed, to good works.

XXI. That good works are so necessary to the faithful, that they cannot reach the Kingdom of Heaven without doing them, being true that God prepared them in order that we might progress in them, that therefore we ought to flee vices and give ourselves to the Christian virtues, employing fasts and all other means which can serve us to a thing so holy.

XXII. That just as our works cannot merit [Eternal Life], our Lord will not let go [forget] to recompense them with Eternal Life, by a gracious continuation of his grace, and in virtue of the immutable constancy of the promises that he made in our regard.

XXIII. That those who posses Eternal Life following their Faith and their good works, ought to be considered Holy and glorified, prayed for their virtues, imitated in all the beautiful actions of their life, but not adored, nor invoked, since we ought to pray to only one God through Jesus Christ.

XXIV. That God gathered one Church in the world for the salvation of men, that it has one Head and foundation, which is Jesus Christ.

XXV. That that Church is the company of the faithful, who having been elect of God, before the foundation of the world, and called by a holy vocation, unite to follow the Word of God, believing what he taught us, and living in his fear.

XXVI. That this Church cannot fail, or be destroyed, but that it must be perpetual.

XXVII. That all must put away[3. “ranger” – not sure about translation.] and stand firm in their communion.

XXVIII. That God teaches us not only by his Word, but he also instituted the Sacraments in order to join them to his Word, as means to join us to Jesus Christ, and to communicate his benefits, and that there are but two common to all the members of the church under the New Testament, that is Baptism and the Holy Supper.

XXIX. That he instituted that of Baptism as a testimony of our adoption, and that we are all washed of our sins by the Blood of Jesus Christ, and renewed in holiness of life.

XXX. That he instituted that of the Holy Supper or Eucharist, for the food of our soul, in order that by a true and lively Faith, by the incomprehensible virtue of the Holy Spirit, we actually eat his Body, and drink his Blood, and we unite very closely and inseparably to Christ, in him, and by him, we have spiritual and eternal life. In order that all the world clearly sees our belief on this point, we add here the same terms which are embedded in our Prayer before Communion, in our liturgy, or manner of celebrating the Holy Eucharist, and in our public catechism, which are pieces that can be seen at the end of our Psalms: Here are the terms of our Prayer: Just as our Lord not only at one time offered his Body and his Blood for the remission of our sins, but also wants to communicate [these elements] for food into eternal life, give us this grace that from true sincerity of heart and of an ardent zeal we receive of him a benefit so great, that in a certain Faith we enjoy of his Body and of his Blood, or even of him entirely. The terms of our Liturgy are: First of all then, we believe in his promises that Jesus Christ who is truth itself pronounced of his mouth; know then, that he wants us to truly participate in his Body and his Blood, in order that we posses him entirely in such a way that he lives in us, and us in him. Those of our public Catechism are the same in Section 53.

XXXI. That it is necessary that the church has Pastors, judged to be well instructed, and of a good life, by those who have the right, as much to preach the Word of God, as well as administer the Sacraments, and to watch on the flock of Jesus Christ, following the ruled of a good and holy Discipline, together with the Elders and Deacons, according to the practice of the ancient Church.

XXXII. That God established Kings and Magistrates, for the conduct of the people and that the people must be subjected and obedient in virtue of this order, not only because of wrath, but because of conscience, in all things which are in conformity with the Word of God, who is the King of Kings, and Lord of lords.

XXXIII. Finally, that Apostles Creed ought to be received, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Decalogue, as well as the fundamental documents of our beliefs and our devotions.

And for a more ample declaration of our beliefs, we repeat here the protestation that we had printed in the year 1603. Know that we consent to the healthy Doctrine, with all the Reformed Churches of France, England, the Netherlands, Germany, of Switzerland, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, and others, as well as is expressed en their Confession of Augsburg, according to the declaration that we gave to the Author. And promising to persevere with God’s help, inviolably in life and in death, being ready to sign this eternal truth of God with our own blood, as our predecessors have done since the times of the Apostles, particularly in these last centuries. And yet we very humbly pray all the Evangelical and Protestant Churches to consider us, with regards to our poverty and littleness, as true member of the mystical body of Jesus Christ, suffering for his Holy Name, and to continue to assist us in your prayer towards God, and all other good offices of your charity, as we have already abundantly experienced, for which we thank you in all humility which is possible to us, and beg from all our heart the Lord, that he be himself the remunerator, pouring on them [the churches] the most precious benedictions of his grace and his glory, in this life and in that which is to come.
Amen.

Framed by the branches of a Christmas tree Saturday, carolers sing at Friendship Square in Moscow.Kai Eiselein/Daily News

Members of Christ Church gathered in an hour of song for the church’s annual Christmas caroling event Saturday afternoon at Friendship Square in Moscow.

Volunteer Curtis Spencer carried a stack of carol booklets in his arms, passing them out to people in the crowd as they sang “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” one of several Christmas-themed hymns in an hour-long lineup of caroling.

“There’s a few scripture readings, passages of the Christmas story from the Bible, and then we’ll end with fellowshiping, drinking cocoa and eating cookies,” Spencer said.

A member came to the front of the crowd in between songs, reading scripture to the audience from a megaphone near a frosted evergreen in the square.

Above the many voices, friends and New Saint Andrews College classmates James Goode and Caleb Harris could be heard belting harmonies during each hymn.

“We were trying,” Harris said with a laugh. “We’re like that in church, too,” to which Goode added, “If you’re going to sing, you might as well sing loud.”

For Harris and Goode, the annual caroling event is not just about singing, but about teachings of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe to be the son of God and whose birth is celebrated on Christmas.

“We are here to spread the news to the world that Jesus is king, that he has died on the cross for our sins, and we can’t keep that in — we’re happy about it,” Harris said.

At the front of the crowd, Daniel Foucachon photographed the carolers with his cellphone. A frequent attendee and unofficial photographer of the event, Foucachon said the church sings in the square about four times per year, but its Christmas caroling event is special, as it includes hymns many passersby will recognize.

“Christmas is a time where just about everyone is happy to talk about something that Christians are celebrating every week, all year round,” Foucachon said.

The carolers wrapped up with “Joy to the World! The Lord is Come,” before ending in prayer and warming up from the surrounding snow with some hot chocolate.

Taylor Nadauld can be reached at (208) 883-4630, by email to tnadauld at dnews.com and on Twitter @tnadauldarg.

“Can you give biblical reasons for not having someone watch your ONE YEAR and 2-month-old child while you’re in church? Come on man. 14-months-old?? Can you tell me exactly what you think you are accomplishing by having a 14-month-old in church?”

“And Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” -Matthew 21:16

“Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” -Luke 18:15-17

“There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.” -Joshua 8:35

“Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.” -Deuteronomy 31:12-13

“Meanwhile all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.” -2 Chronicles 20:13

“While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children, gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly.” -Ezra 10:1

“When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey, and they all, with wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the city. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed and said farewell to one another.” -Acts 21:5-6

Ephesians 6 assumes that children would be present at the reading of the letter to the congregation.

Children were present at Jesus’ preaching (Matt 14:21).

Keep your kids in Church! The Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. The elements of a service are didactic even if they don’t have full comprehension. What they will quickly gain is the knowledge that “these are my people, this is where I belong, this is the Body of Christ where Iworship God.” It may take years for them to put that into words, but they understand it as surely as they understand that they belong at your dinner table. Have you ever tried removing a one-year-old from a dinner table full of older siblings? They know to whom they belong. They have an incredible ability to discern the Body.

Why, then, are we justified by faith? Because by faith we grasp Christ’s righteousness, by which alone we are reconciled to God. Yet you could not grasp this without at the same time grasping sanctification also. For he “is given unto us for righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, and redemption” [I Cor. 1:30]. Therefore Christ justifies no one whom he does not at the same time sanctify. These benefits are joined together by an everlasting and indissoluble bond, so that those whom he illumines by his wisdom, he redeems; those whom he redeems, he justifies; those whom he justifies, he sanctifies…Thus is is clear how true it is that we are justified not without works yet not through works, since in our sharing in Christ, which justifies us, sanctification is just as much included as righteousness.

Ascension Sunday 2009 This Lord’s Day is Ascension Sunday, the day we have set apart to commemorate the exaltation of Jesus Christ to the right hand of the Ancient of Days. This was the day upon which He was given universal and complete authority over all nations and kings, when He was given all rule and authority, dominion and power. Our Lord’s name is the name which is high above every name, and His is the name that, when spoken, will cause every knee to bow, and every tongue to confess, that He is indeed Lord of heaven and earth. And, as we cannot emphasize too much, or say too often, this is no invisible spiritual truth. It is simply, undividedly, true. This means it is true in a way that makes it true on the most practical levels. It is true when church is over.

"It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit. Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes. The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword" (Eze 32:17-21).

One of the visions that the prophet Ezekiel was given was that of a parliament of dead kings, assembled in the nether regions of Sheol—the Greek word for this place is Hades. The prophet was speaking of nations which had had their time of great glory under the sun, but which, inevitably, had descended below to an empty governance of shades and shadows, the empty governance of nothing that mattered. This reality is inescapable—in Augustine’s trenchant phrase, among the nations of men, the dead are replaced by the dying, and however splendid an empire might be for the moment, there is no future for any nation outside of Christ. History occurs on the inexorable conveyor belt of moving time. There is nothing that will shut this conveyor belt off, and so there is no device to allow one nation’s day of glory to be forever fixed. Glory cannot be kept or retained in that way at all. There is no future glory for any king or president, for any nation or people, outside of Christ. So for those who reject Christ, below the earth in the nether regions, we find nothing but wisps of lost glory, and above ground at some future date talented archeologists might be able to find the remnants of an Ozymandian ruin.

This whole notion is rooted in the realization that Christianity is not just involved with “salvation” but with the total man in the total world. The Christian message begins with the existence of God forever and then with creation. It does not begin with salvation. We must be thankful for salvation, but the Christian message is more than that.

"Manly persons are disgusted, and suspect hypocrisy when they hear a preacher talking molasses. Let us be bold and outspoken, and never address our hearers as if we were asking a favour of them, or as if they would oblige the Redeemer by allowing Him to save them. We are bound to be lowly, but our office as ambassadors should prevent our being servile" (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 344).

"This picture establishes the direct relationship between vision and knowledge for which the Dominican Aquinas had argued in his Summa Theologica. Just as we still use the phrase "I see" to mean "I understand," For Aquinas the word visio meant more than just vision. "This term," he writes, "in view of the special nature and certitude of sight, is extended in common usage to the knowledge of all the senses and it is even made to include intellectual knowledge, as in Matthew 5:8: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’" The Pisa altarpiece, like most Gothic images, was not considered primarily as a work of art by its contemporaries, but as something far more powerful and instrumental, because of its capacity not just to reflect the world, but to reshape it in God’s image."

This brings us to the true function of decoration in a twelfth-century book. It was clearly not just because it was pretty. The twelfth century was an age which delighted in classification and ordering of knowledge. Its most admired writers, men like Peter Lombard and Gratian, arranged and shuffled information into order that was accessible and easy to use. Twelfth-century readers loved encyclopedias…Les us then consider book illumination in these terms. It suddenly becomes easy to understand. Initials mark the beginning of books or chapters (PL.85). They make a manuscript easy to use. It helps classify the priorities of the text…A newspaper does this today with headlines of different sizes…any reader of a modern newspaper will fiercely defend his choice of paper by praising the text, not the layout or illustrations. It is not surprising that the twelfth-century chroniclers from St. Albans, Lincoln, and Canterbury complimented the accuracy of manuscripts when what they meant was that they liked using them.

How then can we speak of the divine names? How can we do this if the Transcendent surpasses all discourse and all knowledge, if it abides beyond the reach of mind and of being, if it encompasses and circumscribes, embraces and anticipates all thins while itself eluding their grasp and escaping from any perception, imagination, opinion, name, discourse, apprehension, or understanding? How can we enter upon this undertaking if the Godhead is superior to being and is unspeakable and unnameable?

-Pseudo-Dionysius, The Divine Names, 5.

Realizing all this, the theologians praise it by every name–and as the Nameless One…This surely is the wonderful “name which is above every name: and is therefore without a name…And yet on the other hand they give it many names, such as “I am being,” “life,” “light,” “God,” the “truth.” These same wise writers…use names drawn from all the things caused: goo, beautiful, wise, beloved, God of gods, Lord of Lords, Holy of Holies, eternal, existent, Cause of the ages. They call him source of life, wisdom, mind, word, knower, possessor beforehand of all the treasures of knowledge, power, powerful, and King of Kings, ancient of days, the unaging and unchanging, salvation, righteousness and sanctification, redemption, greatest of all and yet the one in the still breeze. They say he is in our minds, in our souls, and in our bodies, in heaven and on earth, that while remaining ever within himself he is is also in and around and above the world, that he is above heaven and above all being, that he is sun, star, and fire, water, wind, and dew, cloud, archetype stone, and rock that he is all, that he is no thing.

Bible colleges divorced the study of the Bible, a religious enterprise, from the study of nature, human nature, and society, the so-called secular disciplines. Whether intended or not, such a divorce ironically reinforced the very process of secularization that evangelicals opposed.

~D.G. Hart, That Old-time Religion in Modern America – Evangelical Protestantism in the Twentieth Century, 50.

There is, however, another dimension to this unusual phenomenon of speaking in tongues, if the tongues in view here and in the church at Corinth were in the nature of foreign languages. In discussing the question of tongues-speaking in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul cites Isaiah 28:11-12 (‘Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me’) and indicates that tongues are ‘a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers’ (1 Cor. 14:21-22)

This world belongs to our Saviour, and we have been given custodial charge of it. We are responsible to him for how we use it. The problem of sin includes not only questions of personal morality but also the careless use of Christ’s environment. A host of matters, in the personal, political and social arenas, are transformed when we see Christ’s mediatorial kingship in this way.

The Bible bids us come and eat. “Take, eat, this is my body”. Jesus gave the bread, not only to his disciples, but also to Judas. They were all one in Christ, and Christ bid them all come. But eleven were blessed, and one was cursed. In his letter to Corinth, Paul is giving directions for how the Supper is to be taken, and he tells the church of Corinth not to take the Body of the Lord in an unworthy manner lest they bring judgment upon themselves. What is Paul saying? First of all, the Supper is to be taken when the saints, the Body of Christ gather. Secondly they are to exemplify the unity represented by the Supper in their conduct, for if not their conduct lies about the nature of the body of Christ which is unified. God is One, and the Body of Christ must be One with each other and with the Father. If a man is not in communion with his brother, then he ought to be reunited, lest he lie about the meaning of the Supper he is about to partake. What a more fitting opportunity to repent of faction than before the Table which represents the unity of the church? What is the last thing for a saint to do before the table of the Lord? Abstain.To abstain is to cut oneself off from the people of God, which in affect fulfills Paul’s warning. He reproached them for coming together with lack of unity, how much less unified is the Body of Christ when certain members are watching, and “partaking in heart”? The point of the Supper is the remembrance of the death of Christ. That death, because of the breaking of Christ’s body on the cross, now unites together believers who have been washed through baptism in the blood of Christ. Christ’s body was broken so that many might be un-broken and unified with Him. The command to all that are in the body is to come, eat, and drink. As a father invites his children to the Sabbath Meal, so Christ invites us to his table. May no child say, “No thanks dad, I’ll just watch you all eat.” Let us first of all obey the clear command to come, and secondly, let us do so in a worthy manner.

January 8, 2007Lyon, France

Written early Monday morning after reflecting upon a Baptist worship service from the day before.

Anti-sacramental, anti-ritual evangelicalism emphasizes a personal relationship with God, but tends to encourage what Anthony Giddens calls “pure relationship,” a relationship that is not tacked down with external anchors and supports. A live-in relationship, without benefit of the rites and legalities of marriage, is a pure relationship. Evangelicalism tends to encourage a live-in relationship with Jesus.This is wrong, a departure from Christian tradition, and unbiblical. It also places unbearable burdens on the soul. Tempted by the devil, Luther slapped his forehead to remind himself of his baptism. His standing before God was anchored in Christ, to whom he had been joined by baptism.For evangelicals, assurance cannot be grounded in anything so external and objective. Spontaneous enthusiasm is the test of sincerity, and the source of assurance. But eternal, self-scrutinizing vigilance is necessary to ensure that the enthusiasm is really spontaneous.Enthusiasm was supposed to liberate the soul from all the dead forms, but it comes with its own set of chains.

Dionysius to brother Novatian, greeting. If you were led on unwillingly, as you claim, then you can prove it by retreating willingly. One should endure anything rather than split the church of God, and martyrdom to avert schism I think more glorious than that to avoid idolatry. For in the case of the latter one is martyred for the sake of his own single soul, but in the former for the sake of the whole church.

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